DAY 157

FASHION & BEAUTY

Lights, Camera ...

LARGE-FORMAT FILM STILL ROCKS

This image of a girl with a lipstick necklace was created for a custom cosmetic line for an advertising campaign. The image was captured with a Horseman large-format (or 4 × 5) camera. Film sheets are loaded into a holder with dark slides that are removed during the actual exposure. The large format camera is a very flexible system. The lens board and the film back are fastened to a rail and joined by an accordion bellow bag. The construction allows for the front and back to shift, tilt, and rise, creating amazing effects in depth of field. The detail and quality of 4 × 5 film is unparalleled. Even in a digital world, many professional photographers and film schools still work with this format.

After the pose was struck, the model had to remain perfectly still while the film was loaded in front of the viewing glass on the camera. Adding to the difficulty, the model could not be seen when the transparency film was being exposed. A limited depth of field was chosen to draw the viewer’s attention to the product. The aperture was set to f/5.6, which also enabled a fast shutter speed to compensate for any body movement (in general, a shutter speed below 1/8 will cause image blur from a model). —MR